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Urine Mescaline Screening With a Biochip Array Immunoassay and Quantification by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
Dilek Battal1, Allan J Barnes, Marisol S Castaneto
1*Department of Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mersin University, Turkey; †Chemistry and Drug Metabolism, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland; and ‡Drug Testing and Program Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Operational Readiness and Safety, Washington, District of Columbia.
A study found no confirmed mescaline use in U.S. military urine samples using a sensitive immunoassay and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). This suggests mescaline intake is not a significant issue for personnel readiness, though drug stability was considered.
Area of Science:
- Forensic Toxicology
- Analytical Chemistry
- Pharmacology
Background:
- Mescaline, a psychoactive compound from peyote cactus, has historical ceremonial use.
- The U.S. military investigated mescaline use to assess its impact on personnel readiness.
- Existing drug testing protocols needed evaluation for mescaline detection.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the prevalence of mescaline use within the U.S. military population.
- To develop and validate a sensitive and specific analytical method for mescaline quantification in urine.
- To assess the need for routine mescaline screening in military drug testing programs.
Main Methods:
- An initial screen of 20,017 urine specimens using the Randox Drugs of Abuse V (DOA-V) biochip array immunoassay at a 6 mcg/L cutoff.
- Development and validation of a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) method for precise mescaline quantification.
- Confirmation analysis of presumptive-positive and randomly selected negative specimens using the validated GC/MS method.
Main Results:
- No urine specimens confirmed positive for mescaline at the GC/MS limit of quantification (1 mcg/L).
- The validated GC/MS method demonstrated high linearity (R² >0.994), precision (<4.4% CV), and accuracy (>90.4%).
- Extraction efficiencies for the GC/MS method exceeded 92.0% across the linear range.
Conclusions:
- Mescaline use was not prevalent enough in the studied military population to necessitate routine drug testing.
- The developed GC/MS method provides reliable confirmation for suspected mescaline intake.
- Further investigation into mescaline stability in urine samples may be warranted to fully understand prevalence data.